The controversial event carries on despite the fatality.

A protester has been found dead in Bahrain, just hours before Formula One started the controversial grand prix.

Details remain vague, but the opposition group al-Wefaq named the dead man as Salah Abbas Habib, and said his body was found on the roof of a building after he and other protesters were beaten by riot police. The Times, however, is reporting that he had been shot dead. All accounts agree that he was found in the village of Shakhoura, in the north of the island nation, around 15 miles away from the circuit where the race is happening.

One Twitter user @ToulaVlahou wrote: "Bahrain says police investigating death of man, opposition claims was killed by riot police during clashes Friday." Another claimed Salah had been a political prisoner in the 1990s, while others posted pictures of the man they believe to have been killed with a Bahraini flag around his head.